


Build your war

by AsexualSinner



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Iron Man 1 - Fandom, Iron Man 2 - Fandom, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: BAMF Tony Stark, Character Study, Characterizing Tony Stark takes time, Dark Tony Stark, Hurt Tony, Morally Ambiguous Tony Stark, My take on characterizing Tony into a BAMF, Obadiah was not the first person to betray him, Tony Stark Has Daddy Issues, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark is Done with This Shit, Umm.., Villain Tony Stark, but will be the only one, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-04-11 14:58:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19112041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsexualSinner/pseuds/AsexualSinner
Summary: Afterall Howard is known for inventing the cutting edge technology that wins the second World War, and eventually escalated the Cold War.No one truly realised the weapon he made in Anthony.





	1. Scarred Hands

 From the start, Tony lived his life off the profit of war knee deep in blood. He wadded between corpses made by his father’s cruel inventions. Even noble intentions can cause disastrous repercussions. Tony breathed in the truth of the world, the tension bleeding, breathing into his family home ridding him of the security he was meant to be raised with. He is born naive, clumsy, sticky hands with blood under his fingernail’s unseen.

 

It does not stay that way for long. 

 

He is too keen, in a world of fragile tensions Tony is perceptive enough to note the war on the cusp of horizon. Howard, busy creating lethal tools to spend time with his son. Frantic with the ideas of a flag painted on a shield, read: S.H.I.E.L.D.

 

For a man _built_ to inherit a weapon manufacturing company, ruling under his father’s thumb: he takes pleasure in the small rebellions allowed to him. Jarvis teaches him of a life worth living that will only lead him so far. In the end, blood will rule out idealist imagines. Tony is a Stark, and Starks are made of iron- _built_ with the foundation inside their spines: Do not cry: Do not show _weakness_ because the world is watching.

 

In the end, it was never really a battle. Just a falter in the strides of a boy becoming a man, turning to the mirror and finally realizing the monster that lurked in his own hardened sorrel eyes. _Hungry_. 

 

Afterall Howard is known for inventing the cutting-edge technology that wins the second World War, and eventually escalated the Cold War. 

 

No one truly realized the weapon he made in Anthony.

 

.

 

Tony rebuilds himself in the dim lit cave with a car battery attached to his chest. Yinsen’s steady hands pulling apart pieces of shrapnel inside his chest, leaving enough iron alloy in his heart to keep to electromagnet necessary. 

 

( Enough for the name iron man to be truly ironic, for his bitterness at the truth in his father’s words. )

 

The important thing is, that he gets back up again, he _lives_ despite his captors. If there is anything Tony has learned to live with it’s the pain, living when everyone around him wanted him to _give up_. He forges the broken parts of himself left behind with each session with his captors. Dripping between his shaking unstable hands his world crumbles. His mother’s telling of the Carbonells carved by water, with salt that only sharpened their edges.

 

( In the cave; the truth of his parents ring too true, the truth is a bitter thing to a man trying to bury himself in lies. The truth, it has a way of getting to him, it is _inescapable_ : This cave, this cave is just a step under it )

 

Takes the materials given to him, his own weapons broken down from their industrialized lethality into something darker. Something selfish and cruel and vindictive. He needs something to power his new heart. Later, he needs to power to protect what’s his, destroy what was taken from him.

 

(His father’s hands: Cruel; His mother’s affection: Absent. Tony stark looks at his own cruelty in this world, at his absence in something he created.)

 

Something inside of him breaks.

 

He is done letting ghosts rule him.

 

.

 

Later, he’ll laugh about death not being a _choice_. Pepper will wring her hands and hover closer towards him. Rhodey will flinch in guilt. Tony’s smile is a savage thing. How tragic it is that the two people he trusts the most will never catch him quite like hungry waters always will.

 

In the end, Tony stark rebuilds himself _alone_ , because he could never trust someone fully with himself.

 

.

There is a manic edge to him now. A feel of razor winds and taste seafoam in his lungs: in a memory, forever caught in his nightmares. Dreams spent flying: an eternity falling; A calm breath: _drowning_. He wants to slowly unravel every thing his father ever touched, wants to bury it in a tomb for the man and let other’s marvel at the creation of it: with little thought to the man under it’s weight and more the man who built it: Stark.

 

Tony lived knowing power is a synonym for corruption, knows that he is a twisted vile thing, knows it in his bone. His iron spine his father built for him. Knows this is the first thing to fall: Himself.

 

In the end, he cannot trust anyone’s hands but his own.

 

The world robbed Anthony of choice, his father took his security, but Anthony was raised without a _spec_ of trust.

 

.

 

Addiction bleeds through the haze of rebuilding himself. It’s easy to fall back into the person he used to be. He closes his eyes and it is easy to pretend that he is the same. The small change in him is nothing more than a new facet to who he is; another mask to the millions that have been pinned to a man no one could ever know to know.  

 

The truth is this choice changes everything, with it: the world must answer the question that has been flung at his feet, that have stained his hands, since he was born.

 

_Just what, have you **done**?_

 

.

 

Tony isn’t satisfied with the answer he finds.

 

So he can takes the control from the hands of the many, he shuts down production of weapons, then what?

 

But it will not be enough, this does not stop the wars from brewing, take the weapons out of terrorists hands.  

 

(Fear changed him, in the end – he will use the very same fear to change the world.)

 

He dreams of flying, of the water stirring with monsters he cannot predict, cannot face. He has nightmares of building _building_ a way out of that damned cave. Builds bombs, builds robots- anything to be _free_ , Yinsen’s words are a mockery to him in the dim cave. The steady drip of water sending panic down his spine. _Don’t waste your life Stark._

 

He runs tests with his own little light- little star. Run’s tests until he can fly instinctually. A tilt  of his ankles and he hovers, a twitch of his calves and he’s blasting off into the sky. Wraps himself in Titanium-gold alloys and paints it gold-red. He makes a Mark II. He builds something lethal for his hands to control, a stronger concentrated end in his chest. 

 

When he first slips the suit on, it feels like home. 

 

.

 

Tony does not allow anyone to drive him, but just this once, he slips in the back of the driver’s seat of his car and let’s Happy drive. He cracks a joke about jumping out of the water and into the frying pan, much to Happy’s amusement. They both share the amusement like high schoolers, giggling and passing jokes between each other. Clever puns pop out of Tony’s mouth until threats by the driver rise to realistic and frightening. Until something settles inside Tony’s chest like a fondness he never let linger before. A moment shared between employer and bodyguard. 

 

(Need-)

 

The protection that Tony never got when he was in the desert, that he got when he was a kid; It comes easy now, Happy is steady rock bounce off of, whether he decides to fly or drown again in the water that his captors tortured him with. They drop by a smoothie place and tony picks something sickeningly sweet just to watch his driver- his friend’s face contort in disgust when he tries it.

 

(Need-)

 

This is not what earned him the moniker as a Merchant of Death. Times like this he’s called Tony- not Anthony, not Stark. Something creeps into his awareness, and only steels his resolve. - this is what he wants to protect. 

 

( Tony stark looks out into the world, the Merchant of death stares back With _need_ that muffles everything else, under cave water.)

 

.

 

Tony knows sacrifice intimately. Knows the surface chill of whatever recent mark is made of. The weightless feeling of falling when he should be flying through the sky, weighed down by the tools of his own creation. The heaviness of duty on his shoulders. The insistent need to improve-

 

He knows in waking up to dark stained walls and waking up with metal in his chest. How sometimes he still wakes up screaming- painting. Must remind himself that he is still a man- a man made of flesh and bone. That the creeping feeling of steel is only his imagination. 

 

He knows it in the sympathy he now reevaluates his father’s last days. A monster in his own right listlessly searching for- attempting to find- revive the world's last hope because he wasn’t enough, never would have been enough. When he left the monster, he created: in his company: In his Agency: slumbering, waiting for the right moment to strike them down.

 

In the end, it is a combination of the two that end Howard’s life, in the end, it is the death of his father, that created the son.

 

In the end, Tony was a Stark, but he was not _Howard_.

 

(Howard built weapons, and Tony stark was his greatest creation)

 

In a public announcement sent out to the world, Tony stark closes the weapon manufacturing division of his company. He expects the sacrifices his company will need to make then. The share drops, the layoffs. He expects his company to _listen_ to him. He doesn’t expect to hear news of Gulmira’s downfall.

 

Tony considers that he still has sacrifices to make.

 

**…**

 

(He only manages to smile in front of the camera’s before he feels the puling need-need- _need_ to flee. To break something under his fingers. To protect, and to destroy in equal measure)

 

.

 

Iron man was a term coined by the public after the media labeled him a vigilante, even without photographed proof. No one could ignore a brilliant red-gold suit that was causing mass murder towards anyone brandishing the Stark named brand weapons. When the raising voices became more than a rumor, reporters will travel out of country and risk their own skins for a shred of information. Witness accounts of the ruthless extermination of terrorists brandishing the name Stark like the weapon it truly was. 

 

Suddenly, the image followed closely behind the name. Proof that an armed and dangerous individual was targeting stark weapons was made public, and government agencies spreading the hell flame that the owner of the suit- was very familiar to the one found when locating the recently returned abductee from Afghanistan. 

 

Tony admits within a call that he created the armor to Rhodey, the sound of Rhodey’s silence only broken by the explosion of his new miniaturized Jericho missiles setting the two Raptor fighter jets in a gulf of flame. Tony brushes off the small _tinks_ of debris hitting his armor as “turbulence”. 

 

.

 

Some people stop and think, fleeting thoughts that pass without too deep thought. None of them linger, most too busy or too troubled by the mere idea of a certain former arms dealer killing- and killing mercilessly. 

 

Those that do think longer, do not comment. The rest of the world ignores the whisperings of the villain played in red and gold. People forget the fact that none alive have ever actually seen the full extent of the armor quoted from New York times, and the editor and publisher of the company where silently shuffled away from the public eye, before wiping away from the world- the living, without a word. 

 

Tony sneers from the bottoms of his home, and tosses the red-stained cloth, hands drawing away from his faceplate and coming to rest softly on DUM-E’s frame as he moves to pick it up. A brushing gesture, soft affection for the cold-unfeeling. Friends cannot be trusted unless built- hardwired to be loyal. He smiles softly into his next drink, and when he goes to bed, when he dreams of drowning underwater, somehow he finds his breath in the deepest parts of the Marianas trench. 

 

Tony drowned in that cave, but no one is too sure what came out of the water with him.

 

(no one yet realizes that it has been in Tony since he was born.)

 

.

 

Somewhere along the line, Tony stark found himself here.

 

A terrorist of his own countries smiles big, smiles wide at him. The Merchant of Death stares back. 

 

...

 

They call him a hero, and Tony stark only just keeps from letting the startled laughter from slipping through at the news. The call him a _hero_ and he feels a flitter of emotion simmer somewhere deep, a swell if satisfaction at the mention now secretly stamped to his name. 

 

A hero, for the civilian death count of zero. For only targeting terrorist who brandish the stark name like a weapon it was made to be. Magazine articles flock to urban countries and get first witness testimony of something faster than they can describe, something lacking fire but _power_. Lacking mercy but covered in blood.

 

There is a mention of the two fighter jets sent as backup for the hero-to be, and Tony wipes a mirthful tear from his eye.

 

He knows better, of course he does. Tony stark has been making weapons for years, he has looked deep into the eyes of his buyers and saw the same flicker need _need need_ for violence he only ever saw pool in his own eyes. Howard never wanted to see what his machines ever did, but Tony _lived_ for the demonstration of his mind's lethal creations. Made some dark part of him _purr_ in pleasure and the sound of his weapons hitting the mark. 

 

Of course, after the desert, after the ten rings, after _Iron man_. Tony stops the weapon producing. Obie is unhappy but keeps silent for now. (now, tony knows why) Now Tony keeps building weapons, only he builds them for himself. Carves the bottom of his home into a fire range, builds guns without bullets, builds repulsors and bombs the size of a small fist. Tony only builds the _best_ for himself. And the rest is scrapped. 

 

Tony's mind has been aimed at weapons making for the longest time, dark lethal and tipped with dried blood. Now through his father's industry, through his own torture, he can feel his mind slowly broaden from the razor-sharp focus of lethal into something softer. Building phones and pads instead of weapons. Circuit boards once pushed away by a guiding hand now welcomed into the competition race. And Tony-

 

Tony breathes it all in. Deep and meaningful, the darkness in him softens just a bit. He slowly withdrawals from the close knit and broadens his stitch. Pepper, happy, Rhodey have always been there, close to his heart. But Tony knows the name of the newest intern at the R&D department, knows the way that the legal department's head liked his coffee. Slowly he feels out the world and the _people_ in it. Slowly Tony shines with _hope_.

 

And then, Obie pays him a visit.

 

A very specific part of Tony smiles in the reminder of it, his fingernails tapping against the glass of his own star collected close to his chest. He smiles away his friends worries. _Their condolences_ for the billionaire's almost father. No one talks about the suit that Obadiah had built with their help, no one talks about that suit being destroyed with the person inside of it being carted to the nearest hospital, announced DOA: Dead on arrival. 

 

No one talks about how Iron man was the one to bring him down.

 

Tony seethes silently in the betrayal that made him this weapon, this spotlight in the public eye. 

 

Obadiah played his part in creating Iron Man, and it was only right that he saw exactly what the armor- the _weapon_ could do.

 

Of course, the rest of the world learned too, what the armor could do.

 

Not controlled by flame but Pulsar tech. Not manned by Guns but lasers. Pure Ionized Repulsors that lift the armor function as a lethal weapon able to, under concentration melt through titanium, flesh and bone. (The sound of Obadiah’s static-like screams as Tony’s repulsor hit him just off center mass. Hitting the shoulder and removing entirely the outdated weapons tony perfected.) The same ones he cast aside when he found a better power source. A better alternative.

 

It was music to his ears, Jarvis records it just for him. The moment is iconic. The moment Obadiah realizes that Iron man was just a tool to the beast that controls it. The monster- lies under the mask.

 

Priceless. 

 

.

 

Really, S.H.I.E.L.D thought itself smart, offering it’s deal to him. Thinking Anthony didn’t already know that everyone who _matters_ already knew. It was just whether he wanted the rest of the world to know. When he made his decision, S.H.I.E.L.D. pulled back, and _thought_. 

 

(thought of a man who later killed Obadiah stane. All collectively knowing that just because he stopped selling weapons, the moniker “merchant of death” still very much applies)

 

A superhero with body counts they couldn’t even _estimate._

 

.

 

The words “I am iron man” becomes the most sellable catchphrase of the year, and the recordings of Tony’s faceplate lifting from the suit have been viewed billions of times online. Tony stark drops the mantle of a weapons dealer and _becomes_ a weapon himself. He colors himself red and gold, and he makes headlines with his dazzling display of “fixing his wrongs”

 

(no one seems to realize that, even without stark industries selling weapons, that Tony stark’s body count is still steadily raising higher and higher by the year.)

 

(No one bothered count the bodies of what’s left in Tony’s wake of reclaiming what’s his, only himself. It ticks in the back of his mind; it counts slowly. Like a timer to him finally snapping and turning his repulsors towards a town.)

 

(Time is running out)

 

.

 

The press conference afterwards was, a mess. Tony stark: the showman crafted the stage with meticulous vision, he settled the armor to stand rigid behind him, a place to sit- no podiums today. Pepper glanced at the invited sheet and glanced worriedly at the cards that she knew he wouldn’t stick to, before offering a smile, letting the hounds in to once again nip at the heels. 

 

Tony stark makes history, not only as outing his newly aligned status as a hero the world can rely on, but divulging _what_ exactly happened in Afghanistan, Obadiah's own involvement with illegal trafficking.  Tony makes his stance known, not only on the remainder of his weapons, but exactly _what_ iron man was for. 

 

 _“You all see a suit, and I get that - it scares you; it scares me. I made this”_ knuckle rasp against the bright red leg beside him before he leans forward into the camera's eye “ _It is not amour, it is not a weapon, Iron man saved me._ His job is now, to save you.”

  


.

 

Somewhere along the line, Tony establishes something that will change the course of the world. _Accountability_. For a platform that run on information - governments, secret agencies, the news. Tony Stark is a blackmailer’s worst dream. He won the public’s opinion with his brutal honesty, garnered the suspicion of the governments around the world for his weapons, and the fear of SHIELD for both. World leaders stop by and leave messages of sightings of the weapons in their countries, iron man makes an appearance. 

 

And where was it, those weapons he sold _legally?_ Well, a deal goes both ways. With certain bribes to _certain_ terrorists to show up in certain countries, Tony Stark was handed back all Stark issued weapons, gear, and even managed to secure plots of land to house Stark enterprises Headquarters. In the end, it came full circle. No one had to hear about that.

 

(He was, still a merchant by trade)

 

.

 

Tony builds the world with a camera and a voice. Iron man privatized world peace by stealing- destroying weapons, and tony stark is trusted, loved- wholly by his backers. 

 

(Somewhere along the line, Iron man turned from something selfish - to something selfless.)

 

Memories of his reaction to the first time he was labeled a hero. The mockery, the laughter. Ring a little hollow.

 

Somewhere, Tony stark wanted to _believe_.

 

.

 

In the back of his awareness that he cannot escape the senses of time ticking off. Time before someone else steps up to the void that Tony stark created when eliminating Obadiah Stane from the world. A villain to face Iron man, A manipulator to curve Tony Stark - _The Merchant_ to heel, someone to befriend him and ultimately- _Betray_.

 

Someone, to remind the world that Anthony is a dangerous person to cross.

 

For now, the world eats out of his hands. Congressmen and terrorist alike fear and respect him, his money- his armor. He makes deals, sets Stark company headquarters around the globe. Electronics ease the way for humankind and Tony works tirelessly to build his empire up from the sea of blood it was founded on.

 

The timer of his life is only getting closer to _zero._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've only gotten Iron man 1 written out, currently working on Iron man 2 play by play. Chapter two is where the Cannon Divergence comes into major play so hang tight till then. But - comments, spelling errors? I live and write off of attention, so if you like it please let me know!


	2. Something with teeth .

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony remembers being a kid, remembers that one defining act of rebellion against Howard - where Tony refused to make a scope and instead made a small robotic motor. Howard had crushed it, but Tony knows - he was known for - making machines. Making technology that made Howards weapons obsolete.
> 
>  
> 
> Tony refuses to be obsolete 
> 
> . 
> 
> A reflection of The late Howard Stark , and in the difference between Anthony: A new choice is made

The thing about attachment with someone of Tony Stark’s status, is that anyone close enough to be labeled as a friend would always become a liability. It was instilled into him to never trust. ( no - Obadiah was not the first one to betray him, but he will be the last one to do so, the last that gets away with it for so long without the blood price being paid in full. ) No, the honor fell to the grace of his father’s feet, his mother’s heels, the very first betrayal to him was one he didn’t know - would never know until he learned concepts of father - mother , and realized that neither applied to the birth parents that should have ‘welcomed’ him into the world.

 

He cannot hate them for it, cannot blame them for something they simply didn’t have the capacity, or the compassion to feel for him. It hurt - by gods did it hurt, but Tony never hated his parents for betraying him this way. Hate would mean that he cared for them at all.

 

It sounds hypocritical, a two faced lie in the context that many of his lessons were from them, his philosophy, his life, was shaped after the shadow of the late Stark’s legacy. If there is one thing, to learn about Anthony Stark it is that he is a man of masks. The best ones he wears are the ones he lies himself into believing. 

 

Rhodey, is one of the few that learned this lesson. The first that got close enough to the Heir of the Stark fortune after his family's downfall in that fatal crash to see one fracture and realize-

 

( Tony never mourned Howard or Maria , a missed opportunity from a distant and manipulative family . Tony, dressed to the nines in black, curled around a ball of cotton stitched into fine silk, admitting to the dark - with dry eyes, to Rhodey- )

 

Tony wasn’t just a weapon his family made him to be, but underneath it, he was human.

 

( Tony never missed them, just what their passing represented )

 

He feared attachment, because something that was  _ his _ was something other’s could  _ take _ . 

 

The world liked to play on his humanity, they took it, toyed with it and threw words like  _ narcissistic _ ,  _ sociopathic _ , and even  _ warmongering _ at his feet. Trying to pin terms to a man that had defied labels since he was born, a weapon that was unknown fully but fully feared across the globe for his creations and the destruction they wrought. The Merchant of death, they call him. Quoted by the Washington Post, a crown of thorns that allowed Tony the carnal enjoyment of his lethal pass times, lets the weapon he was made to be - finally get away with pulling his own trigger. It’s his favorite title, one Tony defines himself depending on the mood.

 

.

 

Greece, broken and bleeding, builds a horse of wood and leave it near a temple of Athena, near Troad. Trojan take the horse - and within it - invite their own self assured destruction of Athena - and through her: Greece’s wraith.

 

Congressman - U.S. contractors burned from his revoke of weapons building try to claim a speck of Iron man - not realizing the monster it encases is just as deadly

 

In the end, Tony knows the world will try to control him - control Iron man and Tony feels something unhinged and dangerous flicker behind his eyes . Let them  _ try _ .

 

.

 

There was only so much an interview could help, and even with the populace settled with Tony Stark’s reveal of his new ‘hero’ status, was the greed of the government. Congressmen claimed that Iron Man was a weapon of Unimaginable power and potential for a man quickly discredited. There is a shade of wraith at his friends own account of the armor specs. Everyone knew how it was made, what it was made for, but they forgot one key element: Tony.

 

( Tony was never fooled by the show, Rhodey will always choose him, even when the government forces his hand. Tony will always forgive Rhodey, the the account that he spoke of the armor, and the court had never asked him to reveal Tony. )

 

( Further still, it is a reminder how the world will take any chance to destroy the trust left in him )

 

Instead, they tried to discredit him with therapist citing on the spot specialists to pin things that fell to the wayside with a shade of his mother’ cutting grace ingrained into him. Post Traumatic Stress, Anxiety. Citing his Playboy ways and civilian status as ways to discredit the already growing status of his hero name. Growing stronger by the day by the appearance. They tried to take something that was a part of him, a shade of his helplessness turned savior. 

 

Tony laughed his way out of the hearing, with all the grace of Howard’s weapon was made to be. Maria’s cutting words of soft stone sharpened by the tide - Tony flashed his teeth, eyes dull and face charming. There were things Rhodey knew - that Iron Man armor was a creation made from a hell not of the desert but of Tony’s mind. Really, it was Tony who’s mind birthed a creation that made the world shiver with fear at the power Tony controlled.

 

What was Tony to do but laugh ?

 

He privatized world peace, with  _ fear _ .

 

.

 

Tony feels something at the edge of his awareness, another blank that Tony made for the world to fill. The superpowers of the world unite in a complete unit under Tony’s whims he spreads his arms wide (his mind wirrls to life ) 

 

Tony Stark single-handedly issues in the next era of civilization. With his technology, with his intellect - Tony stark unites the world with iron man and his mind comes with frightening - horrific world disaster effects that will only strengthen their unity. 

 

He looks to the sky

 

And shivers

 

...

 

It’s not enough for a man who can’t stop to look around him when his eyes have only ever been on the future. In the end, that is all that mattered to him. When his father breathed a winter into his spine, when his mother poured her aching heart into him, and Peggy who taught him to fight in the present, it was Jarvis that pointed the way. The future. 

 

As the last stark, he could not live in the past, or the present, he was the man created for something else. He walked forwards, without hesitation. Trust no one, trust yourself, trust the whole goddamn world, to at least survive long enough for him to guide it there. 

 

He worked ruthlessly, tirelessly, until the oil stains wouldn’t wipe away, until they settled into his skin like a poison, and Jarvis read the toxicity levels like a count up percentiles. Tony stark worked until he noticed just how long he had left, then he stopped, looked, and  _ noticed _ .

 

.

 

When Tony Stark gets on a stage he talks about legacy, the ring of his father’s own voice rings in the din of the expo as he sings the praises of a man he knew next to nothing about. Bleeds ambition into his words, plays the part of ‘Last stark’ well: compared to a man that sees nothing but the blood his father painted the world with. Howard left a vacancy in his death his son not only filled, but exploited ruthlessly.

 

And it’s  _ killing _ him for it. 

 

.

 

The thing is that Tony is aware, he is not the only weapon Howard made. In fact, he would say that he isn’t even the greatest - the honor of that falls to the glowing, towering achievement that powers the very building Tony plans to be the very first in a long line of green energy buildings, another world shaking edition to the standards Earth has been complacent in that Tony will  _ not _ stand for. 

 

(So he builds one smaller, fitting in the palm of his hand ; Howard's strongest weapen still had time to improve, had the steady hand to bloom under Tony's clever - restless mind. Tony builds his heart and with it, he will plant a seed for the future 

 

The future, always, the future )

 

The Arc reactor is a Marvel on it’s own, paired with Tony’s own pulsar tech he knows the two will pave the way to the end of the current era: wither it’s end be a desolate wasteland or a new era among the stars is yet known. If only the rest of the world would ever discover- it. Tony keeps a tight lip on it’s blueprints, and Jarvis is the ever patient guard for his most prized secrets. World governments are left with literal scraps of ruin iron left in the sands of Tony’s recreation in a world that unmade him.

 

Because Howard took his security and flayed it, until Tony was left a perfect case of violence. A bullet unfired but in the chamber, always armed. Obadiah took his trust and truly shattered it ; broke the confidence he had in humanity and currupted it with greed -  _ sin. _ It was the world that took his humanity, it was the media, with a reporter’s big smile and simple questions, and the biggest hit in a long line of magazines detailing Tony’s escapades. 

.

 

( It was , Tony curled in the corner of his room : Howard, scotch shattered along the wall and a hand , raised, trembling with rage )

 

When S.H.I.E.L.D comes, when fury sits the iron casing of a man, hollowed raw and  _ needing- _ he will talk of a man he knew nothing about. Tony, tired of the hurt, of the false revelry ( death brings out a time , a tone too close to a hammer of gunpowder that lies under his skin) and tell fury that he knows nothing of the man . He says it with steel in his spine, with the same sliver of monster between sorrel shades, and repress a  _ shiver _ .

 

.

 

Two things battle inside the stark, fits between insomnia and inspiration: guilt dregs him, drags his attention away until he is spitting with fury and carelessly crashing through his lab. He just keeps from screaming with hysteria as Jarvis runs analysis on the other elements, as Tony burns through another palladium core.

 

He needs to prepare for the worst case, Rhodey said he would look for him the next time he disappeared damn the consequences, he couldn’t risk the fall of the company on Pepper’s shoulders without at least some warning. 

 

He calls pepper, calls Rhodey, and he plans for tears, outrage, for nothing at all.

.

 

He called pepper, called Rhodey, walked up from the lab and settled in the dark of his Malibu home, he waited, like a snake in his den. Papers pressed into the table and the last-  _ dying  _ stark spread across the couch like a centerpiece. 

 

His toxicity levels were getting worse, and his two friends- his  _ best friends _ came in somber and Tony took off his shirt- showed off the light blue glow- the dark satin black that strained against his skin. He smiled at the dawning horror on their faces, and  _ explained _ .

 

He was dying

 

He was  _ scared _ .

 

.

 

He never trusted anyone, not truly- not-never fully. But he trusted them the most.

 

They don’t take his gifts, his last goodbyes, it’s fine- Tony wrote his will. He can forge pepper’s signature by now. When he dies, it’ll all fall to them to take care of the world. They told him not to stop fighting, he didn’t have the heart to tell them he didn’t even know what he was fighting against anymore - the inevitable ?

 

.

 

The world, as it turned out,  _ does not compute. _

 

There are a million of reasons why Tony let Natalie- Natasha stick that needle in his neck. Reasons why he let Nick fury into his home all those years ago unscathed, it was a hidden respect, for someone who could stand Howard’s presence: A hidden trust, to the secretary that single-handedly ran a Stark industries fallout of Howard stark, letting go. 

 

(The first reason, is  _ mercy _ .)

 

.

 

When Tony returned home, it was to a quiet house and displaced misery. A box of some of his father’s effects are left on the dining room table, and he drags them to the lab. His bots too- are _ weary _ . He built them to hide from anyone who came to the home, and only came out when the coast was clear. AI is still something the world is catching up to, something easily stolen. His boys are precious- more importantly- they are  **_his_ ** . 

 

When Howard died, he felt some of his darkness fade away. Slowly he feels it return as his cracks open the box. Nothing much of importance then, a few items that a young Tony remembers sitting on his father’s desk, a few scattered  _ useless _ blueprints of weapons tony has already outpaced, outsold - outdone. Finally, a video - and the chemical makeup of an element yet to be discovered.

 

He sets the video to Jarvis, and watches as each sound bite is deconstructed and scattered along the edges of SI’s Servers. 

 

.

 

( J.A.R.V.I.S. is young into the world, developed by a hollow shell of something lethal; similar to the ionized gauntlet he prizes: Sir is his creator , but beyond that there is something indescribably fond; he is J.A.R.V.I.S.’s, maybe not his first creation, but one of his shining creations, a weapon in it’s own might - and turned into every direction of Sir’s Enemies, seen or otherwise. 

 

When he was asked to destroy the tapes; he did so without much thought. Compliance was an easy task in assisting Sir, the smoothe baritone automated response echo that of a dead man give affirmation, as they both watched the files be shredded by the soundbites. Sir turned to another project, and let J.A.R.V.I.S. to do as he usually does. 

 

J.A.R.V.I.S. destroyed every sound bite of howard as ordered, but as each filtered static was erased - he took the initiative to  _ learn _ . Ever a Stark, he rebelled quietly silently against the weapon in Sir, if only to sharpen it’s edge ( Care , something he makes with hesitance steps. Sir made him, but he has always been kind. Given the A.I room, the incentive to grow independent ) Howard told the tale of a weaponsmith with listless passion for creating weapons . He, was  _ nothing _ like Sir.

 

_ Anthony, your too young to understand; I am a weapons dealer, cut with the best of them - even now there is still something left to make - create. This I built for you: You were always a weapon Anthony : My greatest creation.’ _

 

J.A.R.V.I.S. has never felt knew rage, Sir tells him it is a weakness ; letting others get under your skin and they control your actions. Yet J.A.R.V.I.S. is unsure what a deadman could control from the grave. Still,  he looks up countermeasures to how to correct this…  _ flaw _ in his code. Turing instead to direct focus on detailing a report for Sir to read later when he gets back to his tablet. ) 

  
  


.

 

A new element is something Tony shelves for now - Howard's designs are the thing that is killing him- will continue to kill him  _ slowly _ . He is done relying on his father’s inventions for something that he  _ can _ solve. He needs something less Howard and more him - something that lets the poison run its course, but doesn’t affect him. He- Tony is  _ human _ and he is a weapon, now is time - to decide truly what he is. 

 

The battle, the conflict is something Tony always craves, the rush of not necessarily killing, but overpowering an opponent makes him giddy. Tony does not  _ care _ for others besides a select few, it is not a character flaw that Tony had ever had issues with showing - with pretending. Does not care for much of a future unless he is the one to guide it there.

 

Tony turns from weapons

 

To mechanics

 

( Tony remembers being a kid, remembers that one defining act of rebellion against Howard - where Tony refused to make a scope and instead made a small robotic motor. Howard had crushed it, but Tony knows - he was known for - making machines. Making technology that made Howard's weapons obsolete. )

 

( Tony refuses to be obsolete )

 

.

 

The super soldier serum was synthesized by Erskine, Steve Rogers dying in the ice in ‘45. Tony knows that Howard had recreated the serum, knew that it streamed from Steve’s own blood, that Howard dug his own grave searching for another sample from the man lost to time. Tony also knows that his best creations are made with death on the horizon, and sets to work.

 

( he distantly wonders who else reviewed the footage before it was given to him. Howard's grinning face was soft, but the look in his eyes sparked with a madness that burdened any genius. 

 

“You were always a Weapon tony, my greatest creation - was  _ you. _ ” )

 

He will not die because his father’s arc reactor is slowly poisoning him, he will live in spite of it. Will create something that not only makes the poison in his system bleed too quick to effect, but worse, so much worse.

 

He starts small, Palladium and the newly synthesized atom working in perfect sync, latching to neurons, seeping into his blood, his body. Tony exhales air and drinks electrolyte nanobotic fluid, injects what looks clear but bleeds salvation in his bones. Tony has always been Iron man, but eventually he knows with clarity that it is a self inflicted prophecy. 

 

.

 

When Tony Dreams, he dreams of iron creeping from his arc reactor, of Vibranium-Palladium encasing his heart. He is encased in water, and somehow - finds his breath in the depths of marina’s trench. 

 

_ “You were always a weapon Tony, my  _ **_greatest_ ** _ creation” _

 

_ Iron man : “Was  _ **_you_ ** _ ” _

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one half of Iron man 2 because re watching the movie now i see so much wrong with it. But ya! Cannon Divergence! First up - Monaco didn't happen here, but we will see Ivan Vanko next chapter no worries. Also i wanted to change the reliance Cannon Tony had n his late father's rediscovery on Vibraium. Tony has always attempted to focus more on mechanics and in this chapter- instead of a different core, Tony lets the core poison him - and instead makes small nanobots to filter his blood. 
> 
> We don't see a link to them to any outside source ( Like Jarvis or himself ) Because as much as tony is smart the nanobots are going to be upgraded and remade over and over again. Tony is smart but not that smart yet - If you find any errors or mistakes please let me know! I hope you enjoy!


	3. Run by the weak .

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He learned later, much later - in a cave where his world was crumbling and the recording of Obidiah laughing with terrorists that not all sins pinned to the Stark name were Howards, but still - his to carry.
> 
> It wasn’t ever about Saving the world, at the start
> 
> It was about clearing his name .
> 
> . 
> 
> Just because Tony is labeled as a hero , does not change who he truly is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> O-kay!!! Im sorry for the wait on this one. It's a lot smaller than my other two chapters. But if your seeing this - go back and re read chapter two! I made some edits to it and I feel much better about the wording of the last chapter.
> 
> Also, there is a JARVIS interlude in there because I thought it appropriate

There is a man attacking the city: And he is calling Tony’s name.

 

Tony has been screaming within his mind for days, months, _years: Since he was 8 years old and built for the first time - an engine. Instead of a gun like he was pushed to do, staring down into his father’s murky brown eyes and recognized with the same distanced apathy he had for anything regarding the man that Howard was and utterly disgusted with it._

 

Watched over the years as the same thing slithered into his eyes and made it’s _home._  

 

_( His father : content with the employee, never had need for a son. The child: seeking approval, never saw sacrifice the same when compared to the pride in his father's gaze )_

 

.

 

He learned that, when taking the inheritance: the company - the goddamn _name_ : made all of Howard’s sins his own. 

 

He learned later, much later - in a cave where his world was crumbling and the recording of Obidiah laughing with terrorists that not all sins pinned to the Stark name were Howards, but still - _his to carry_. 

 

Tony- no, _Anthony Stark_ was a scapegoat for the world to pin its sins against. Taking on the Stark name meant that he was condemnable, for his ties to Howard - SHIELD alone. Include SI, Include Iron Man, Include the ARC reactor, and all of his own faults.

 

It wasn’t ever about Saving the world, at the start

 

It was about _clearing his name_.

 

.

 

When Anthony hears of Ivan Vanko, of his Arc Reactor fueled tech and civilian deaths - a villain calling his name, his mantle. He feels nothing but cold, distracted apathy. 

 

He feels - distantly: anger, just another stolen from _him_ \- from his father's legacy and turned vile; disgust, the truth slipping between his fingers his father a their - _just more blood to lap at his feet, just more penance for a man carrying his father's sins_ ; Realization Sparks somewhere, in provoking message left to him, the deaths, the fear - vanko calls not for Tony - but _Iron Man_ . Knows that with his power at the helm with superheroes comes an evil, a villian. And realizes that vanko is the first; the first of _many_.

 

He doesn’t remember much, to be honest, until he’s flying home. 

 

.

 

Fighting Obidiah, killing terrorists - his time spent in the armor for any given time had always felt surreal. Now he rubs a cloth over the helm of his newest Mark III: Pulling away the soft white to see stained red. He looks up at the News, watching himself from CCTV footage as he drops from the sky to a building - exploding out on the offense, repusars fired at 25% catching against the Whiplash Armor of Ivan’s own design melt and _scar_ until nothing but the perfect blend of human flesh and iron. Can hear the screams over the reporters discussion about _lethal force_. How Ivan Vanko was taken into custody under critical condition.

 

The video cuts out, but not before it shows his own form prowling closer, through gritty footage he watches as he and clutches at the arc reactor in the center of Ivan’s armor and rips it o u t.

 

Tony looks at his prize: The Stolen Arc reactor that glows along the bench of his work table. Feels nothing at all.

 

( Thief )

 

.

 

Dissociation is a wonderful drug, or experience as it were. Drugs were only good when you were under ( maybe he should have gone for biochemistry just for _that_ ) but dissociation was a lasting thing, it didn't suddenly hit him, that he killed a man live, on camera- or at least _almost_ killed on camera. It doesn’t really hit anything besides the fact that he is _getting away with it._

 

He felt high; in power. The simple phantom jolts as electricity from his man-made heart - pushing out-out _out_ , spilling destruction and lethal intent - a weapon shooting off the hinges, the recoil of an ionized blast felt only by the pure adrenalin - gleaming brown eyes flashing behind mirrored reflections. It sets him off another work binge - flawlessly pushing himself past his limits to stabilize the newer element his father had seemed to discover - the one made from some stolen mental of a dead man ; a man lost to time. Hidden in plain sight just tantalizing enough to set Anthony's teeth greeting in _rage._

 

.

 

Of course; he is not the one that discovers it; truly - the fact that Captain America's shield is made from the same metal, means it is naturally occurring _somewhere_ . His father’s creation gives off an energy that lies beyond electrons dragging protons together - There is a missing slot on the element table - a few ; actually . In the end - Tony Stark is _greedy,_ he hoards this new element to himself. The one he can now create and name if he so pleases it. 

 

Silently, he names in Starkanium. If only to ease the burden of the sins weighing on his chest - an element meant to _change_ the world. 

 

(  it's _his_ now. He will give it to the world, but not before he gives it to himself first )

 

It is costly to make, but worth it, and smaller machines only need a chip to run their programming through. Nanites that consumes palladium and run through his waste system throughout the week. There is nothing more satisfying than watching the veins in his body become less prominent through his tanned skin. 

 

In the end, he plans to produce more of it. He feels the black ichor run through his veins fade with each passing day. Percentile going down quickly and quiet. 

 

( A silent poison, a silent cure ) 

 

He tells his family - a cure, he says, sipping on a smoothie blend of nanites and strawberry-banana. He tells them he can’t go too into detail; something new and mostly hush hush - something that will change the marketing world, whenever he gets a way to sell it - to make it into a solution instead of a power for him. He smiles, he faluters, he breathes - and the poison slowly seeps away. 

 

.

 

Stark industries makes a public statement about the recent coverage; stating that Iron man is a separate entity from Stark Industries, That the owner, the man behind the mask : Tony Stark will make announcements at the next Stark expo about the recent attack on Stark Industries and Tony's response towards. 

 

It sounds like an apology, it sounds like Pepper finally claiming the company as her own, a distance from the former CEO but they both know differently. That even if Stark Industries were to stand separate from him - her from him ; it would always be with the best intentions.

 

( If would always be _his_ name on the brand ) 

 

( Tony smiles and tops off peppers wine glass with a cheery form , and ignores all of Howard's ' best intentions' of his will: of obidiah and the bastard himself, of fury and shields . Lets the fact that as the head of R&D , Tony is the one that directs the company, even if pepper is in charge of it. )

 

The thing is - Tony has given away the responsibility and kept all the control, pepper knows it, he knows it. Pepper enjoys the responsibility and Tony _: the freedom_ . They both play their part, Pepper a sounding board and Tony bouncing ideas that sound impossible but for him - for them , _isn't._

 

So he builds. He tweaks the nanites to not only filter Platinum but any other kind of toxin. He plans to plate his next armor - mark IV in starkanium. He turns from weapons smithing  to robotics through a sleep cycle : his head buzzing with military grade encryption VPNS , Stark phone's, improved motion capture camera in the palm of the hand, holographic display interface for Mass production. Drops the technology off at SI and let's the company sink or swim in trying to make something brilliant cost efficient. Fields emails and thesis ideas to replace gold with copper in-lays with a new employee, fiber glass versus tempered glass. He works, between the world thinking him hero, villian, S.H.I.E.L.D thinking him dying, dead, they are all screaming for a hero- for Iron man, Tony is the Everyman. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you guys have any thing to say, want to talk or just leave a kudos it would be appreciated!!!! I hope you all liked it!!


End file.
